Train Carrying Shuttle Booster Parts Hits Car

March 11, 1988|By John J. Glisch of The Sentinel Staff

CAPE CANAVERAL — A locomotive towing three booster rocket segments for the space shuttle Discovery collided with a car Wednesday night in Biloxi, Miss. The accident killed two people in the auto and caused more frustration for NASA.

The segments, en route from booster maker Morton Thiokol in Utah to Kennedy Space Center, apparently escaped damage but were to undergo careful inspection when they arrived at the spaceport early today.

The crash was the most serious of 20 accidents involving rail shipment of booster segments since the shuttle program began in 1981, said Russell Bardos, NASA's shuttle propulsion director in Washington.

Some rail cars carrying booster segments have been ''sideswiped'' in shipping yards. Others have been bumped by trains backing freight cars loaded with the massive booster parts, Bardos said.

The locomotive struck Wednesday night rolled out of Brigham City, Utah, on Sunday and was heading through Biloxi at 45 mph. The auto failed to stop at a crossing and ''moved right into the path of the train,'' Biloxi Police Chief Tommy Moffett said.

The impact crushed the car and pushed it six blocks, Moffett said. Killed were the driver, Victor Carriere, 67, and his wife, Suzie, 59.

The couple lived two blocks from the crossing, which does not have a gate or warning lights, Moffett said.

Bardos indicated the tragedy might increase support for a NASA proposal to build a booster plant near Kennedy's canals or in Mississippi to minimize the risks of transporting the segments on often dangerous and deteriorated rail lines.

''We're basically taking the position that we should build something with water access to KSC'' so the segments could be delivered on barges, Bardos said.

The three booster parts on the train included an aft segment, which contains the motor, and two foward segments.

They were the last of eight booster segments shipped to Kennedy, where they will be assembled and used aboard Discovery on the first post-Challenger flight set for Aug. 4.

The train was chartered by Morton Thiokol and contained no other freight, NASA officials said.

The wrecked locomotive was replaced in Biloxi.

The booster segments were checked by the train's crew there and examined again by railroad inspectors in Mobile, Ala.. No damage was found, Rabb said. The segments, which contain flammable solid propellant, would not have exploded if hit by the car but could have caught fire and burned, NASA said.